What is “digital detox” and why is it trending among young people in the US?

Scroll without Google Maps, stop swiping on Instagram, put away your headphones to listen to birdsong: for a month, a group of young Americans swapped their smartphones for simple flip devices and embarked on a digital detox.

And there are new tools available to do it: apps, phone lock devices, and groups — like the one in Washington — that promote month-long detoxes.

Multi-week social media “diets” have become popular on university campuses, and screen-free gatherings among friends have become a trend in big cities.

Going without the smartphone, even just for a couple of weeks, leads to “greater well-being and a better ability to sustain attention,” said Kostadin Kushlev, a psychology researcher at Georgetown University.

Preliminary studies suggest that these effects last over time, he added.

Josh Morin, one of the organizers of detox programs in Washington, believes that simply stopping using the phone is not enough and that it is vital to offer an attractive alternative.

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Its program includes a weekly debate session for participants, in a karaoke bar located in a fashionable neighborhood of the American capital.

“To really break that habit, it is necessary to offer a social, community and enriching life,” Morin said.

“The beginning of something important”

“A Month Offline” was launched a year ago by a company called Dumb.co.

Participating costs approximately $100 per person, a fee that covers the loan of an old cell phone preloaded with essential tools—phone calls, text messages and the Uber app—that sync with the user’s smartphone.

To date, the startup has moved forward at a slow pace. He hopes to surpass the thousand participant mark in May.

But experts see a broader trend.